In his grab-the-pitchforks address to the Republican National Convention on Monday night, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani insisted the enemy wasn’t “most of Islam,” just “Islamic extremist terrorism.”
But in an interview with The Intercept on the convention floor Tuesday night, Giuliani enthusiastically defended policies that treat all Muslims like criminal suspects.
Asked whether he supports Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s proposals to have police spy on mosques, Giuliani replied, “I was the mayor who put police officers in mosques, in New York and New Jersey.”
Giuliani even claimed credit for a longer history of police surveillance of New York-area mosques than is widely known, predating the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “We did it for the eight years I was mayor,” he said. Giuliani was mayor from 1994 through December 2001.
“After the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center by Islamic extremist terrorists from New Jersey, I did it in early January of 1994.”
After the 9/11 attacks, the New York Police Department launched a now well-documented but then-secret program of spying on every mosque within a 100-mile radius of New York City, including in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New England. The department acknowledged in 2012 court testimony that the program had never generated an investigative lead and in 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio shut down the program’s most controversial unit.
Giuliani insisted on Tuesday that the mosque surveillance during his tenure “helped stop, hopefully, three or four attacks,” and said that “those leads helped us immensely. And they were enormously valuable to us. And Mayor de Blasio doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
But when pressed, Giuliani would not name a terror plot the program stopped. “Of course I cannot! That’s top-secret information. I’m not Hillary Clinton, I do not reveal top-secret information.”
In his speech on Monday, Giuliani called for “unconditional victory” against “Islamic extremist terrorism” and attacked Hillary Clinton over her willingness to accept Syrian refugees into the United States even though they are “going to come here and kill us.” Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times said the speech would have been better delivered “at the head of a torch-bearing mob.”
Giuliani, “for the purposes of the media,” insisted on Monday night that he did not say the enemy was “all of Islam” or even “most of Islam. I said Islamic extremist terrorism. You know who you are! And we’re coming to get you!”
Indeed, Giuliani argued that screening and surveillance were actually doing “good Muslims” a favor. “Failing to identify them promptly,” he said of extremists, “maligns all those good Muslims around the world.”
Giuliani is the CEO of Giuliani Partners, a lucrative security firm he founded in 2002 to sell “security consulting services” to international companies. In 2004, asked whether he would join the Bush administration, he told CNN that “the money’s really good.” More recently, he joined the powerful global law and lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig.
The NYPD’s post-9/11 program was widely ridiculed by civil liberties groups. The NYPD’s “Demographics Unit” (later renamed the Zone Assessment Unit) mapped neighborhoods based on “ancestries of interest,” including “black American Muslims.” A 2007 report from the NYPD’s Intelligence Division outlines radicalization “indicators,” including “growing a beard,” “abstaining from alcohol,” and “becoming involved in social activism.” The Brennan Center described it as a recipe for “racial and religious profiling deleterious both to civil liberties and to genuine efforts at attaining security.”
In 2012, the Associated Press revealed that the NYPD was photographing the faces and license plates of mosque worshippers, installing hidden cameras pointed at mosques, and recruiting informants to infiltrate mosques, report on sermons, and bait Muslims into making inflammatory statements.
The ACLU was critical of Giuliani’s statement to The Intercept.
“It should come as no surprise that Rudolph Giuliani, a serial violator of civil liberties, reveals himself as directing discrimination on the basis of religion,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project. “It’s telling that Mr. Giuliani makes his assertions while hiding behind the hollow and implausible claim that he cannot say more because something that might have happened decades ago should remain a secret.”
You truly epitomize why you are a generation of brats. Do you think that without somebody like Giuliani that people your age would have gone near a metropolitan area? You would’ve been scared to cross a tunnel never mind a street.
What makes this worse is your going after Trump who you obviously share a hair dresser with. Study the comb over. Keep occupying parks and throwing pee at the conventions stupid. It obviously has done nothing as you have.
SO why wasn’t he as his post on 9/11 – Emergency Management Office……
SIR. RUDY no not anything near a sir. How’s his buddy Bernie Kerrick?
Just for the record, and to get it off my chest:- I lived in Manhattan through the 1980s and 1990s near the Puck Building — a point where the Lower East Side, the Bowery, Little Italy, China Town, and Soho converge. On the basis of daily observation, then, it was very clear & distinct to me that the gradual gentrification of that part of the city followed shortly upon the AIDs epidemic and — to an extent related — the very serious drug abuse that had been long prevalent on the streets. What had happened then, very simply, was that, within just a few years, any number of hookers and druggies had managed to kill themselves off, which meant pretty much as a matter of course that the crime rate in the district slumped drastically. I was perfectly amazed and indignant, then, when in his campaign and role as city mayor Giuliani would routinely take personal credit, with outrageous chutzpah and zero epistemology, for the city’s drop in crime. Was/Is such a raving narcissist even able to grasp the wretched fallacy of: post hoc, ergo propter hoc – ?
i read a compelling report on research done to link the drop in crime, not just in new york, but nationwide, to the removal of lead from gasoline. the ex mayor’s heavy policing policies had nothing to do with reducing crime.
spying on muslim’s and stop & frisk are both unconstitutional forms of police activity. giuliani broke the law.
but laws are only for the little people.
Thanks. But — putatively — why did removal of the lead precipitate the drop in crime? Because build-up of the lead in the system results in psychosis and, hence, violent behavior? I take your bigger point — that Giuliani was a de facto ‘plagiarist’ of a sort. But I’m very curious to learn more re: what you report.
Only the most liberal sources seem to notice that other cities experienced equal or greater drops in crime than New York ( http://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/04/nyregion/cities-reduce-crime-and-conflict-without-new-york-style-hardball.html?pagewanted=all ) and ascribe these things to the consequence of nationwide benefits of liberal policies rather than Giuliani’s unique tactics. But I have never seen those sources in any way consider the impact of HIV on IV drug abusers. I am doubtful of this explanation, but nonetheless, it is interesting and it’s an idea I’ve never encountered before.
Thanks so much for the magnanimity. I guess really interesting and perhaps revealing would be a medico-historical study of the NYC death-registers from that epoch with a view to assessing the incidence of ‘unnatural’ (< HIV + OD) deaths among those under, let's say for argument's sake, 35 — and this by comparison to other epochs. I.e., did there take place any kind of a surge? We oughtn't forget that, synchronously to some extent, there occurred in NYC and the US generally an epidemic of crack cocaine which — either through ODs and/or (given the expensive drug-dependency:) malnutrition + immunity system degradation — no doubt resulted in any number of non-HIV/AIDS fatalities. Again, thanks.
Giuliani is and always has been a despicable character. I could expound, but it is late & I am tired. Research and you will find that Rudy Giuliani has always been an ambitious, sociopathic, despicable individual. The fact that he was a prosecutor should give anyone an insight.
research
You are so right and very articulate. He is the LAST person to lecture on morality
Rudy Gu911iani’s ghoulish equine-sized teeth shined under the bright lights as he barked deep-throated praise for law enforcers. His loyalty to Big Business oligarchs and Wall Street money changers was again confirmed when he claimed Trump has the cure for black Americans: less business regulations and charter schools.
Wonder how many innocent people he railroaded into prison while he was a federal prosecutor?
Ideally, all Americans should be treated as criminal suspects. But right now it is politically popular to single out Muslims. I don’t really blame Mr. Giuliani for supporting democracy.
The framers of the Constitution created a bill of rights in an attempt to curtail democracy. Over time, democracy has re-asserted itself.
However, smaller groups can still exert influence in a democracy, by organizing an effective political lobby and gaining control of important posts in key institutions. The Muslim community has not been very effective in doing this so far, but they will eventually adapt, or disappear.
YOU MIS-SPOKE all Americans are treated as suspects
…..Giuliani is demonstrable proof New Yorkers aren’t very fastidious in picking up dog crap on the street………..
Well, this New Yorker offers sincere apologies for the success and continued existence of racist Rudy, lover of thug-cops, hater of blacks, snooper of Muslims, mincer of Americans’ freedom.
He took a squeegee to the squeegee men, a sledgehammer to the Constitution, and a cut of the earnings to his bank accounts–but’ey it’s all right because seven eleven (thanks, Trump) happened. :/
Excellent article, thank you.
I observed that when Rudy was going into the Muslim Hate section he actually went off script and revealed the sub-structure by stating that he was only putting in qualifying statements “for the media” (wink). In other words, he muffed the set-up and exposed that falsity he was knowingly peddling, that being his, Rudy’s, agreement with Trump’s demagoguery and bigotry.
All in all, I found Rudy terrifying.
The 20th century KKK had over 4 million members at one point and killed over 3000 people. Muslims in America have over 3 million members and killed over 3000 people. I agree that people exercising First Amendment activity should not be treated as suspects for their beliefs, whether they idolize murderers and slave traders from the Confederacy or murderers and slave traders from Arabia, but I want to emphasize the need for consistency. Whether the government sends spies to go after Islam or the KKK, it should have the same standards for what counts as a valid reason to investigate.
What a fucked up analogy. Where would we begin dismantling your tidy little comparison?
By comparing the precise purpose of the KKK, a organization built and designed solely for the purpose of spreading terror, with your supposedly analogous group called “Muslims in America,” who are not a precise organization (and, by the way, do not actually include the highjackers who rolled up that lazy “more than 3000″ figure on one day, 9/11?)
That your proportional logic is useless, since you use a “4 million” figure from the 20s with a vastly lower national population and compare it to a “3 million” figure now? That “muslims in America” have never enjoyed the kind of official dispensation that the KKK used to enjoy, to the point that while “muslims in America” have never gotten away with crimes they committed, the KKK most certainly enjoyed the protection of governments?
That being in the KKK is a very specific choice – no one is a born KKK member — it means very specifically condoning the violent aims of that organization, while being a Muslim means a lot of things including having no part in contributing to violence even in sympathy?
Sad, sad stuff.
I remember dimly when Wnt wrote things here that weren’t as stupid as they were bigoted. You have Muslim derangement syndrome. Go love someone you twit, your heart has shrunk like Dr. Seuss’s Grinch.
People are born KKK members as much as they’re born Muslims. I mean, either their parents subscribe to one of these beliefs or they don’t; whether they believe what they’re told is another matter. And both the KKK and the Muslims have (obviously) many believers who aren’t killers; indeed, both organizations have a lot of people who just want to get together with like-minded individuals somewhere and do their own thing, with a certain implication that they are somehow superior by doing so.
Now it can be instructive to go through something like ( https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_expeditions_of_Muhammad&oldid=729930256 – alas, some politically correct censors have caught up to the current revision of this page, and attempted to salvage Muhammad’s character by removing nearly all of the substantial information about him). Killing poets, raiding caravans, these have been core Islamic principles from the first day of the religion to the last. I will not deny Muslims the right to believe what they believe, or even to try to put a pretty face on it and say they are pursuing something erudite and refined. But I will not accept the deranged position of those who put on a show of reverence for a ‘prophet’ simply because a lot of people follow him, or he lived a long time ago. A crook is a crook.
“the KKK (…) have a lot of people who just want to get together with like-minded individuals somewhere and do their own thing, with a certain implication that they are somehow superior by doing so.”
Ho ho ho. Yeah sure Wnt, the KKK is kind of like a bowling league, albeit a superior one, albeit one that swears you to to secrecy and makes you disguise your features, albeit one that demands your denunciation of all kinds of other people. Other than that, just a place for “people who just want to get together with like-minded individuals somewhere and do their own thing.”
You are a tower of babble. You have jumped the pink polka-dotted flying shark. You are unhinged like a cheap screen door.
Just a couple of important corrections to your equal justice comment: 1. Islam (not “Muslims” )is neither a cult nor a club to have membership. 2. Muslims, therefore, could not have killed 3000 people. Nineteen high jackets, none of whom were American, killed 3000 people. 3. There are 1.7 billion Muslims in the world majority of whom are neither Arab nor from the Middle East . So, when you use the term “Arabia ” and then embellish it with the term, “slave traders,” and write as though 1.7 billion think the same and can act in unison, you make your call for equal just sound hollow.
Well, note that “the” KKK isn’t really a monolithic group either (though it was more so in the past). There are numerous little splinter groups around the US, each zealously maintaining its independence in the hope of not losing its budget when the SPLC sues the others. And while it is true that the bulk of the terrorism by Muslims was done by a few people, it is also true that the bulk of the deaths from the KKK were done a long time ago and in certain states, so they too could try to stand aside and say “it wasn’t really us“.
While it is true that I was looking at this only regionally, the numbers probably aren’t that different when looking worldwide. For example, the 1965-66 killing in Indonesia claimed something very roughly on the order of a million deaths, and was largely though by no means entirely organized as a matter of Muslims killing others. I suspect the ratio worldwide (relative to 1.7 billion Muslims) is not far from the same 1:1000 ratio I’m getting for the two groups in the U.S.
Ultimately of course it is not going to be a perfect equivalence, but it is close enough to demonstrate the need for an evenhanded policy. It is not reasonable on one hand to celebrate people who beat up white supremacists or separatists and to use that as an excuse to deny them a chance to march and to spy on their organizations, while at the same time saying it is bigoted to consider that Muslims might be a threat. The same would be true in reverse.
The question then is, what can police legitimately do? Can police, whether uniformed or plainclothes, watch a public event or go into a public venue and have a look what’s going on? Can they take names or shoot video? And the answer is, obviously, we don’t want them getting too carried away about First Amendment activity or tracking people’s private activities and opinions, but also obviously, when an event is public and they have a reason to wonder if something awful is being planned they might have some right to have a look. Calling the boundary there isn’t that easy but we should do so with the idea in mind that we are setting it for many different groups of many different beliefs.
The KKK was a Protestant terrorist organization. Islam is a religion, and it also has terrorist organizations like ISIS. It would be fair to compare Christianity with Islam or the historical KKK with ISIS.
I don’t know as the KKK still functions as a terrorist organization; they’re probably just a bunch of bigots today.
I wouldn’t use that comparison because the KKK was never in the same league as ISIS. The CIA says ISIS has 31,000 members. They claim 40,000. From just these members, the UN has documented 18,800 civilian deaths: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/isis-death-toll-18-800-killed-iraq-2-years-u-n499426
So I mean, with the KKK, about 1 in 1000 members was a killer, and we rightly denounce them for that. But with ISIS, about 1 in 1 members is a killer.
Exactly. Wnt’s analogy is utterly moronic. The Klan was constituted for the express purpose of terrorizing blacks, Catholics and Jews. It’s entire raison d’etre was to keep these “sub-humans” and/or “foreigners” subjugated.
Islam is one of the world’s three Abrahamic religions. It evolved to do all the things the vast majority of religious faiths do: to provide answers to why we are here and how we ought to live with one another, as well as what happens when we die. Comparing it with an American domestic terrorist group is utterly absurd.
Since 1776, the US has been “at war” 93-percent of the time. No other entity imposes death and destruction better than the US.
I wonder the same
Rudolph Giuliani, like his all-time buddy Trump, is a WYSIWYG kind of b#llsh!tter, not a person you would need an “analysis” or a biographical documentary about. Yet, I’d wish they would make such an incisive documentary about every politician. Some of my good St. Mary’s friends (Janet Doorman) were interviewed for that documentary
I have used that documentary to discuss “politics” in my civics, history classes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuliani_Time
https://www.amazon.com/Giuliani-Time-Kevin-Keating/dp/B002UXDKD4/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473037/
~
Rudy also has qualities that I generally admire: he is neither cynical, nor “rationalizing”.
He gave both “‘business’ owners” midtown Manhattan and the NYPD a deadline to move their business away from the most centric 42nd street and stop the prostitution business in the area, even parking trucks in front of their business and offering “help”. No one has figure out yet, where did they end up and if you started to defend your “constitutional rights”, you had him to argue about them with. Once prostitutes in the area were angrily wondering about that old gal occupying “Roxane’s” spot. Even though in NYC people knew well and hated him and his shadow, it took them some time to realize it was Giuliani himself cross dressed as and pretending to be a prostitute in order to check the progress of his own projects ;-)
His racist and classist remarks (and policies) would make Trump sound like an amateur. At a dinner for all state representatives attending an important UN session, he somehow managed not to make space for Castro and he was publicly joking around about it “Unfortunately, there were some chairs missing …”, yet, his jokes and language were not so happy most of the times. Old people attending a funeral offered to firefighters who died 9/11 in my neighborhood (even if “they expected some racial b#llsh!t one way or the other” …) were shocked to see him referring to black and Latino firefighters right during his speech at the funeral as “those other ones …” he seemed to have forgotten that (even if not really by birth) in death we are all equal …
RCL
He has been bragging about that for years. Did you expect something different all of a sudden just because you asked? I do not understand why this is headline news.
It’s called a REMINDER. Guliani sent the nypd to israel to be trained by the i-d-f so he could replicate operations in nyc. Cant say it was as effective as what the i-d-f do in israel, but the killing and rigged court thing was and is in play. So you’re complaining?
Because it is important to remember, to be reminded, to be aware of it, to stop it happening again.
There is one bright spot- while (some) Republican activists are eating his words up, and while (establishment) media treat him as serious, he’s not that popular outside those circles. Remember 2008 and the debate Guliani “won”? The one where Ron Paul pointed out how much of the Arab world hates us for our bombing them, with Guliani providing a vicious response? The media declared Guliani the winner (and ignored the endorsement for Ron Paul by Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA’s Bin Laden unit), but in the primaries, Ron Paul beat him in almost every state.
http://2008election.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=001563#iowa
Why do people like Giuliani rise to great heights in the American political process? Surely the people of New York City are not like this man or harbour sympathy for his views. How could he ever win an election in a free country? ….Beyond distasteful.
He’d better start cooking the story for St. Peter if he is ever to get past the Pearly Gates.
1. a competitive operating environment
2. victim relativity
3. sadistic tendencies
4. an overall inability of how to grow people
Guiliani – I remember that dark, dark phase in NYC. There were many 24 hour stores in an area I lived that were owned by Arabs. After 9/11 the harassment was terrible. Regularly taken to the station, families not informed, strip searched, humiliated, threats to take their license, close their stores, some even said their stock was pilfered, money stolen, kept for days or weeks, again and again for no reason, but they were Arab-looking (some Muslim, some Christian, some other religions, some no religion at all). All found innocent, let go only to be taken in time and time again. One day I found a store owner in tears, shaking uncontrollably, he had been hauled in many times and this time was one too many. It was mind numbing, nauseating, he asked me why they wanted to humiliate him, strip him naked, terrify his family who had no idea where he was for days? I had no rational explanation. Anyone who ‘looked like’ an Arab was terrified, US flags festooning their stores and cabs, flag pins on their lapels, badges, I love America everywhere, they even said it as a new form of greeting and to fend off attack. Many were harassed by locals, called Bin Laden, their stores, robbed, thrashed, some beaten up, they were too terrified to call the police thinking they would be the ones arrested. It happened on a regular basis, until they shut up shop. Of course nothing in the media, Guiliani was adored as king and everyone was too afraid , including the media, to stand up for civil or human rights or even common decency.
Guiliani says his crackdown “helped stop, hopefully, three or four attacks,”. Hopefully?
What it definitely did was terrorize innocent people, close down stores and people’s livlihood and give license to thugs to break any law, commit any violence, if the victim ‘looked-like’ an Arab.
very similar to the zionist master race who make use of I,D,F forces to treat others like Palestinians. SAME PATTERN. Also some same elements….
There is certainly no excuse for this kind of reaction. It is one thing to send an agent into a mosque to pick up a few fliers and look where the donations are going – something else again to detain, strip search or even jail someone without a damn good reason. It isn’t even sensible when viewed purely in terms of the goal of stopping terrorism — even ignoring that patriotism means being proud of American rights, and ignoring basic human decency for that matter. It simply doesn’t make sense to provoke people you think might be dangerous.
“something else again to detain, strip search or even jail someone without a damn good reason” see: The Patriot Act.
“It simply doesn’t make sense to provoke people you think might be dangerous.”
Thinking all people who have, or are thought to have, Middle-Eastern ancestry ( or whatever group one wants to demonize) are dangerous is nonsensical, irrational, illogical, grievous, stupid, self-defeating, irresponsible – I could go on… It’s a false premise designed to create an illusion of safety – a child’s blankie for the masses, but a terrifying nightmare for the group that is targeted.
U.S.A. is Terrorist #1 at home and abroad.
As confirmed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) the United States has a hit-list naming over 2-million Arabs, Muslims, and American political dissidents for persecution and assassinations.
The list is shared with all police and government agencies with instructions to target those named.
Who are the terrorists?
The terrorists are any group that another group doesn’t like.
Equating police officers and former mayors as terrorists just makes you look like a loon. But thank you for not copy pasting your silly lawsuit comment this time.
kind of like sticking up for the i-d-f and the zionist capitans, eh?
You amaze me with your silly writings in favor of cops and other terrorists in the U.S.A. government.
May God help you.
republicans suck. got it. had it
Yes, does everybody at the Intercept have to do a daily hyper-obvious analysis of some dumb bullshit from the convention?
the left should be spending every waking moment trying to figure out what mistakes IT is making, because it’s definitely losing, and has been for a long time, but maybe my mistake is thinking that the intercept is trying to be a voice for the left. or maybe the left likes losing because then it doesn’t have to actually do anything but sneer at the successful (like giuliani) from its imagined position of moral superiority. anyway, articles like this have no effect other than making the intercept look like a halfassed print version of msnbc, which is not helpful
Thing is, Guiliani is not just some talking head spewing on Fox. He really was mayor of NYC and really did preside over some egregious attacks on the Muslim community. Like it or not, when important Republicans speak foulness at the party’s convention that just is news.
The GOP is set to nominate a candidate who takes attacks on Muslims and minorities to a whole new level. Trump is popular, as much a clown as he is. This is quite worrisome. And is news.
Guiliani is about as important as Dan Quayle. Guiliani has been saying this same exact thing for 15 years. Maybe you think it’s news but that is your opinion, not fact.
You seem to have this problem with everybody who has another opinion. You yammer on about how you are factual while others are not. Protip: that is not how logic works, Mona.
Even though he hasn’t held a government position or won an election of any kind in 15 years, Rudy’s words just DO TOO MATTER! Rudy is WAYYY more important than former VP Dan Quayle. Rudy was once the mayor of The Most Important Fucking Place on Earth.
Just ask anybody from New York City, which is coincidentally also the home of The Most Important Fucking Media on Earth and The Acknowledged Cultural Capital of America and just so, so much more.
Thanks to his one-time mayoral position of The Greatest City on Earth and his stirring feats as The Guy Who Was the Mayor When Those Big Buildings Were Destroyed, Rudy G. is permanently big big news, even in 2016 obviously much bigger news than killings of civilians in Syria.
the left should be spending every waking moment trying to figure out what mistakes IT is making because it’s definitely losing, and has been for a long time, but maybe my mistake is thinking that the intercept is trying to be a voice for the left. or maybe the left likes losing because then it doesn’t have to actually do anything but sneer at the successful (like giuliani) from its imagined position of moral superiority. anyway, articles like this have no effect other than making the intercept look like a halfassed print version of msnbc, which is not helpful
eh, it’s a minor problem, the Intercept is great…& next week it’s all going to be attacks on the Democratic convention and I look forward to it
even trashing democrats becomes an empty redundant ritual at some point. what’s needed is criticism of The American Left, whatever and wherever that is (it’s not the democratic party for sure), that’s what’s failing. so how about an article on the green party and what they’ve been doing wrong and right? i’m not sure there’s even been a mention of the american green party in an intercept article. or a CRITICAL article on blm, gasp, what they could be doing better. or what a shitbag bernie sanders turned out to be
let’s face it the american left is not big on self-criticism. much bigger on self-esteem and self-righteousness. i seriously question if the left wants to succeed. there’s a fundamental dilemma about seeking power, granted, but power also comes with accountability and a full schedule and if you’re already comfy who needs the aggravation, empty redundant rituals are the easy way to go
I’m not joining you in attacking Bernie Sanders. Anybody who feels betrayed by him just has no excuse for this attitude, as they ignored everything he said, and none of which he has gone back on.
We don’t need him to fall on his sword for us by running 3rd party. Now we go somewhere else, if so inclined. I am so inclined, for example, and it would be nice if I had non-babies on the road with me. We need people who run within the Democratic Party and people who don’t. I mean it: BOTH. Not just one or the other.
I too would like to see more articles that include Green Party positions and Jill Stein’s campaign statements. And I plan to vote for her.
I don’t know what “The American Left” is exactly except that it is in transit. No reason for pessimism except all the obvious ones : )
As an Eisenhower Republican, now age 70, I have no home. How did this change occur? Instead of promoting democracy, we supported any anti-communist effort abroad and adopted a quasi-religiosity at home. At the same time, “it’s just business” made lying legitimate. Boy and Girl Scouts can not do well in such a world. Morality is touted, but not actually followed. The economists believe that markets self-correct, but the greater fool wealth-effect confounds that idea, since the economists want inflation. Perpetuation of human civilization without wasting the planet is a reasonable, objective and even spiritually valid vision, but to do this, community motive must manage the profit motive which seeks power and dominance by a few.
Econs want price inflation. Public property is key. All life support (not comfort) industries with 50%+ marketshare must be nationalised. Every living person has a right to live. The currency system must be replaced b/c the profiteering is in the load-to-own con being perpped on America. Free and clear is wallstreet’s fear. Also, the populations need to be reduced, we are way overpopulated for the planet. One child and cut for 3 or 4 generations.
Wow…nothing says freedom and liberty like forced sterilization.
What a clear call and response. Your solutions are too sensible though. If by some miracle we ever get over ourselves and actually begin trying to govern ourselves globally in a humane way, you might see your ideas in use, but as it is we’re being led by Lilliputians according to a script crafted for an episode of “Ren and Stimpy”.
Owning our utilities? We can’t because private enterprise is oh so much more efficient at socializing cost and privatizing profit.
Reducing the population? Heresy! Unless of course you mean to use war. Then you’d be a genius! Guaranteed minimum standard of living? Horrific! What would become of all the trust fund babies who need cheap labor to help them become self made billionaires?
Business for the sake of quality instead of profit? Sacrilege! Off with their heads!
*sighs heavily and votes Clinton*
Rudy is a slimy politician who should have gone to jail.
His coverup of 9/11 and the fall of bldg 7 was obstruction of justice.
LOL bldg 7 continues to grow in importance in the tropical heat of the malarial mind.
It’s going to be on some symbolic rebel flag by 2038, isn’t it? I see a yellow flag, snake around the office building.
“DON’T DEMOLISH ME”
” I see a yellow flag, snake around the office building” – “DON’T DEMOLISH ME”
You need to trademark this. Brilliant, apocalyptic visual.
Rudy Giuliani is the worst kind of lying sleazy hypocrite, and evidence #1 is his relationship with Purdue Pharma.
Here’s a guy who made his name as Mr. Law and Order, Drug Warrior fighting organized crime, right? So what does he do when he gets out? Goes to work as a lobbyist for Purdue Pharma trying to get charges dismissed because Purdue was (and still is) dumping opiates on the illegal market to up sales and profit margins:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/giuliani/oxycontin.html
This is the kind of criminal endeavor that is all to common among the “nation’s law enforcement leaders” – they pack the jails full of poor people on inflated drug charges and then turn around and go to work for criminal operations like Purdue Pharma (in Giuliani’s case) or HSBC’s drug-money-laundering operation (in Lynch and Comey’s case) – Republicans and Democrats both.
Screw these corrupt dirty bastards. They deserve to be chased down the street while being pelted with rotten fruit.
or on the same street, a lamppost right next to his hero, Mussolini
Crooks should be tried in open court, not hung from lampposts by vigilantes. It would have been better if Mussolini had been sent to Nuremberg for trial.
The best solution would be to charge these corrupt sleazebags with aiding and abetting criminal organizations, both the Republicans like Giuliani and the Democrats like Comey and Lynch.
And there’s no doubt that Clinton is just as sleazy, greedy and opportunistic as Trump is, and a bit more hungry for war. In fact, I’d guess Clinton likes this Mussolini quote, just as much as Bush did:
Note also that Giuliani seems to get upset when people compare him to Mussolini:
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/24/nyregion/political-memo-the-mussolini-of-manhattan-giuliani-grins-and-bears-it.html
Giuliani pounding the podium in a rage. . . well he does look a bit like a fascist clown.
Certainly is characteristic of populations who rely on grouping for power rather individual power. E Pluribus Unum? America has lost sight of the value of “self” reliance.